Netanyahu says coalition should annex West Bank settlements
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli sovereignty should be applied over occupied West Bank settlements as his unity government was sworn in by parliament yesterday.
Members of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, formally approved the three-year coalition government with 73 voting in favour and 46 against.
“It’s time to apply the Israeli law and write another glorified chapter in the history of Zionism,” Mr Netanyahu said.
“These territories are where the Jewish nation was born and grew,” he said.
“This measure won’t distance us from peace, it will bring us closer.”
Such a move is likely to cause international uproar and inflame tensions in the West Bank, home to nearly three million Palestinians and about 400,000 Israelis living in settlements considered illegal under international law.
“The people wanted unity, and that is what they got,” he said, citing a desire to avoid a fourth election after three inconclusive ballots since April 2019, and a national battle against the coronavirus outbreak.
The call came a week before the start of the corruption trial that has threatened his reign as Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.
Under the power-sharing deal, Mr Netanyahu, who denies any wrongdoing in the corruption case, will serve 18 months as prime minister, then hand over to his former election rival, centrist Blue and White leader Benny Gantz.
At the weekend, Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gantz announced their appointments for the new government – the most bloated in Israeli history, with 36 ministers and 16 deputies expected. Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gantz, a former military chief, announced last month they would put their differences aside to join forces to steer the country through the coronavirus crisis and its severe economic fallout.
Their blocs will have a similar number of ministers and virtual veto power over the other’s major decisions.
The deal has already led to the dissolution of Mr Gantz’s Blue and White party after he reneged on his central campaign promise not to serve under Mr Netanyahu.
Their much-scrutinised coalition deal was realised only after the country’s Supreme Court ruled it had no legal grounds to block it.